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The invention relates to a tote bag for fastening to a panel and, more particularly, to an adjustable tote bag for fastening to a panel of public transportation vehicles.
With the main streaming of most handicapped children in the public school system, the buses used to transport all students must be provided with features to enable transport of students in wheel chairs or other movement aids, such as crutches or walkers. In most cases, the school bus is modified to include an open floor area where one or more wheel chairs, with the student therein, can be secured to the floor during transport. The open floor area is separated from the regular bus seats by one or more half-height partitions fastened to the floor and optionally to the bus ceiling.
The wheel chairs for handicapped students are often equipped with various auxiliary devices, such as trays and the like, for ease of operation and user comfort. In particular, trays are removable from the wheel chair to allow the user entry and exit. These removable devices are potential projectiles should the bus be involved in an accident. Thus, there is needed some way of securely storing trays and similar auxiliary device while the bus is traveling to pick up and deliver students to school or return students from school to their homes.
Numerous patents have issued for devices fastening to vehicle seats and the like. Some examples of such inventions for which patents have issued include the following.
Bing, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,014,759, describes an automobile utility bag formed of a single piece of flexible sheet material folded to define a pocket much longer than deep. The piece of material extends upwardly from the pocket to proved a panel for overlaying areas of automobile seats to attach the bag thereto. The bag also includes a stiff board insert within the pocket to divide the pocket into two compartments. The device includes attached straps for anchoring the bag in place on a seat.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,479,085, Weinstein discloses a universal slip cover type of article carrier, for mounting and demounting on the back of an automobile seat, formed of a first flexible panel of rectangular configuration with opposite sides and opposite ends and which is folded over on itself so as to provide a front and a back. An elastic side panel is sewn to each pair of adjacent edges of the front and back with the elastic side panels terminating short of the fold for leaving open spaces at the fold to permit the slip cover to snugly fit various comer configurations of automobile seat backs. Several panels are sewn across the back of the slip cover to form pockets for storing items.
Mitchell, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,650,103, discloses a public transportation vehicle seat slip cover having a plurality of transparent plastic pockets arrayed in partially overlapping rows for displaying advertising brochures and the like.
Nicholas, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,354,119, describes a sleeve having elastic bans at the open ends. The sleeve is place over a back of a seat or chair and holds articles within the sleeve against the back of the seat or chair.
In U.S. Pat. No. Des. 358,731, McAlear shows a sack for hanging on the back of a chair, while Newcomb, in U.S. Pat. No. Des. 369,490 shows a pocket organizer for use with a beach chair.
Thus, there is an unmet need for a device that securely holds items in a public transportation vehicle to prevent dangerous movement of the items in case of an accident.
The invention is an adjustable anchoring tote bag assembly for attachment to a half-height partition in a bus. The assembly includes an elongated planar flexible anchoring member with front and back surfaces having a width less than that of the partition, and a length sufficient for encircling the partition and producing an overlapping section of the anchoring member. A first fastening means secures the anchoring member overlapping section together. A second fastening means further secures the overlapping section, with the second fastening means attached to the anchoring member front surface for connecting two front surface points, one point on each side of the overlapping section. A third fastening means secures the anchoring member to the partition, with the third fastening means attached to the anchoring member front surface for connecting two front surface points, one point on each side of the partition. A bag member with an open top end and a closed bottom end is secured to the anchoring member front surface with the bag member closed bottom end adjacent the anchoring member overlapping section. A fourth fastening means between the bag member open top end and the anchoring member front surface holds the bag member top end closed.